by Julie Adamen

It is Saturday, and right before we left the house this morning to go roller-skating (yes, roller skating), the phone rang. It was a fellow Board member as many of you know (and still find humorous) I am a member of a  Board of Directors of an HOA), calling to advise that a catastrophe has occurred in our association:  A mail box cluster was vandalized during the night and dragged unwillingly to occupy a portion of the inbound lane of one of the streets. The Board member who called me  is a “get it done” kind of person and as such she was about to go out and try to fix the errant mailbox cluster herself, possibly  by grabbing it firmly by the horns and forcibly dragging it back to its proper resting place. I began to chuckle to myself and think back to the days when I managed and had to deal with such problems regularly. I told her no worries; I’d call the management company and have them take care of the problem. I had full confidence that the problem would be handled by management.

This “crisis” sends me back to the days when I was a manager. When such problems popped up on weekends, I would simply phone the appropriate vendor and the problem was on its way to becoming history. I was able to have a regular life and be a community manager as well, because for me, calling vendors and getting great response on weekends – or anytime - was just not a problem. This got me to thinking - what IS the magic that makes vendors or board members respond to requests, and take advice, from their manager? It’s respect. And that respect is earned by the manager by developing and nurturing credibility and integrity.

Stop and think a moment – of all the managers you know, those whom you most admire have integrity and credibility – they are not just good, but great managers.  We know great managers when we see them, but how do we measure it in our business? And more importantly, how can you go from being a good to a great manager?  Like anything worth having, credibility and integrity are earned, and must be continually nourished and nurtured through word and deed.

If you want to go from ordinary to extraordinary, you must strive to obtain and maintain credibility and integrity.  Here are just a few of the traits of great managers:

Great managers understand the power of effective communication, and are very effective communicators.  Managing community associations means that you are in constant communication with the owners, the Board members, the vendors, your co-workers or your employees. That’s a very large group of people in whose eyes you must have enough standing, or credibility, to convince, cajole, assign, direct, instruct, give or deny permission or give information in hopes of accomplishing some task or assignment.  And this means you must communicate well in person, in writing, via email, on the phone, one on one or in a group – sometimes a large group. Being an effective communicator makes the manager terribly credible. And it makes them great.

Great Managers present themselves well. In traveling the country talking to managers, hundreds of them in fact, I have come to the conclusion that a lot of folks just don’t get it: The clothes you wear make a giant difference in how you are perceived, let alone in how you contribute to the Beautify America program. This doesn’t mean you have to always wear a suit, but it does mean you must dress appropriately for the occasion as well as your professional status. How you look, dress and generally “present” yourself physically has a lot to do with gaining and maintaining that presence. A couple of years ago I was the keynote speaker at a CAI chapter for their annual trade show and soiree. Like many attending management firms, one had reserved a table, right up front, for all their staff members. How did I know they all worked for the same company? They were all wearing T- shirts. Not collared shirts “golf” shirts with a stitched on logo; ill-fitting inexpensive T-shirts with the company logo on them. Next to them was seated another management firm. No company shirts, but the staff looked like they were professional managers, not as if they just stopped gardening in the yard and came to this function which was chock full of potential clients

Great Managers are organized. Organized in thought and organized physically, great managers have the information or resources they need at their fingertips. They have developed a logical system that works for them and their communities for everything from soup to nuts. Great managers know that all the information in the world can be in the  office, but if there is  no way of accessing it, it’s useless.

Great Managers follow through. Whether it’s returning a phone call, visiting an owner, finishing a project or meeting with a vendor, great managers follow through and do what they say they are going to do. There is no shorter route to losing credibility with everyone with whom you work than by not following through on word or deed.

Great Managers do not procrastinate. They start the hardest job first by simply digging in. They know that once they start procrastinating, their days of being a great and credible manager are numbered.

Great managers never give information they aren’t sure of. Because they know their stuff and know their jobs, great managers stay credible by never giving out information as fact when they do not know if it is indeed fact. Woe be unto to any manager who gives an “off the cuff” answer to a question only to have it shot down with factual information (maybe very publicly). If a credible manager does not know the answer to a question, or is unsure of the facts, he or she obtains the right answer or fact then follows through and reports that answer or fact back to the inquiring party in a timely manner.

Great managers understand the value of their relationships with vendors. Long term, trusted relationships are very much valued by great  managers. These managers understand that  relationships with vendors assist them in their ability to manage communities more effectively and efficiently. This means they treat vendors with respect; they pay them on time and don’t jerk them around for a few bucks. A trusting relationship between a manager and a vendor is money in the bank for an association.

Great Managers admit mistakes up front, take responsibility, and then fix them. Even the most reliable and trusted manager will make mistakes from time to time – BIG ones. Managers who maintain – and even gain additional – credibility from mistakes are those who recognize the mistake, go right to their Board(s), tell them what happened and explain how he or she is going to fix it. Then, they FIX IT. Managers who duck this process, deny the existence of a mistake or even worse blame someone else for it lose all credibility. And many times their job.

Great Managers maintain professional detachment.  It’s very easy in our business to become emotionally attached to the people we work with daily, and that includes our Boards. When this happens, managers begin to identify way too closely with one or more individuals, and eventually those individual agendas start to become the manager’s agenda. The best managers have no agenda other than to get the job done for the corporation, not for any one person. Many a manager has fallen from grace by getting too close in this fashion. Managers stay credible by keeping a healthy professional distance between themselves and their Boards.

And another thought about keeping distance from your Board(s):  Managers who are emotionally attached to their Boards have a tendency to be myopic about their own options when it comes to upward mobility, placing an excessive amount of importance on their role with their current Board(s), and guilt on themselves for needing to move on. Take it from me, you can be the best manager in the world and your Board may miss your competence (for awhile) – but they don’t pine for you.

Great Managers stay current with their industry and with business in general. If you want credibility, you must have knowledge about not only your business, but business in general. You must continue to expand and nurture that knowledge. You do this through industry education, through continuing public or private education, through reading books about performance, business, human nature and the world at large.

One of the biggest problems I see with our industry is how unique we think we are – as if our industry is so extraordinary that regular business principles and practices don’t apply to us. The very nature of our business often makes it easy to fall in to this narrow-minded trap because we are so busy handling problems in a job that never ends. But if more folks applied regular business principles to community management, we might begin to see things such as higher wages, higher profit margins, a full market strategy for the industry as a whole and oddly enough, better service for the client.

Great Managers deal well with change. Throughout any sort of major change, a manager will have to adapt to new or previously unknown circumstances while remaining predictable and reliable to the client. This trait lends comfort to those affected by change.  The manager is present and consistent, communicating with owners, service providers and the Board, and otherwise getting the job done. This develops tremendous credibility with those affected by the outcome of the change, as well as those effecting the change.  

Great Managers have a sense of humor. You can’t be exceptional at what you do unless you enjoy it. And you can’t enjoy this business unless you have a healthy sense of humor. The best managers don’t take themselves or the job too seriously, so they see the funny side of the business, as well as the serious side. 

Great Managers value their integrity and credibility above all. When we come right down to it, great managers have a lot of traits that make them great, but each of these traits point to two overriding qualities: Credibility and Integrity. And the best managers nurture and protect these two characteristics because in reality – it’s all they have. It’s all any of us has.  An ok manager may be able get the lawn mowed and write a decent letter, but if they don’t have credibility and integrity they are just another in a long line of undistinguished managers who blew in to the business one year and blew out the next.  

Great Managers command higher salaries and get the best jobs in our fast growing, recession-proof and outsource-resistant business. Why? The great manager helps the Board look great.   This ability is a very valuable commodity. You see, your Board(s) rely on the manager and his/her credibility to get their agenda across to the owners in a professional, sincere and reliable manner. If the manager isn’t credible, the Board doesn’t look credible.  And if the Board isn’t viewed as such by the owners they will be faced with obstructionists to their agenda at every turn, making their jobs far more time consuming and difficult.

Great Managers make things happen for their Boards and themselves anywhere and everywhere they go, because Integrity and Credibility – the traits of Great Managers – follow those managers throughout their careers, and wherever life may take them.

Are you a Great Manager?